The Wombles

The Wombles were created by Elisabeth Beresford around 1967. One Boxing Day she and her children were taking a walk on Wimbledon Common and one of her children called it Wombledon Common. She thought the name cute and it started her wheels rolling.

The Wombles are furry creatures with pointy-noses that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling garbage in useful ways. Originally the Wombles appeared in a series of children's novels from 1968 to 1973. In the mid 1970s the became very popular thanks to a popular BBC children's television show that used stop motion animation to animate the characters.

Their Womble motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish." This "green" message was a reflection of the ecology movement of the 1970s. Although Wombles live in every country in the world, the stories focus on the life of the burrow in Wimbledon Common in London, England.

*At right is a picture of the Wombles visiting the Pelham factory.

Elisabeth named the characters after many of her family members and places that held meaning to the family some of the characters were:

Great Uncle Bulgaria - the leader based off her father-in-law

Tobermory - based off her brother - a skilled inventor - and named for the capital of the Isle of Mull

Orinoco - based off her teenaged son and named for the River Orinoco

Bungo - named for Bungo Province

Wellington - named after her nephew's school

Madame Cholet - based off her mother

Tomsk - named for Tomsk in Russia

Alderney - named after Alderney in the Channel Islands where she lived at the time of the second series